Wednesday

I don't know why it always seems to be Wednesday by the time I get around to posting again! The weekend was FABULOUS. We went to The Way on Friday and it was really great! We also picked out a wedding ring for Geoff, it should be in in a couple of weeks. Saturday I was REALLY productive - I went to the gym, unpacked, did a bunch of laundry, cleaned the house, ran some errands, baked 3 cakes, fixed some things around the house, etc. It was great! Then Geoff and I did a TON of lawn work that night... it looked like an overgrown jungle before and now it's on its way to looking halfway decent! Sunday I went to church and then went to Geoff's parent's to show Taylor, Rebecca, and Kristy how to decorate cakes (the aforementioned 3 cakes!). It was a great day! Then Geoff and I went to Costco and Bed, Bath, & Beyond and then had dinner. We made tilapia and broccoli. Monday I went to the gym forEVER, and yesterday I rested my knees. Today I'm going to the gym then having dinner with my friend Katie and going to Solid Rock's Wednesday night service, then tomorrow Geoff and I are having dinner with our friends Kendra and Beau.

A quick wedding update: I made a wedding website and we got more engagement pictures. We're working on picking out Scripture for our wedding... I am so anti 1 Corinthians 13! That sounds terrible... and actually I'm not, I love the passage and it's absolutely beautiful... but I just don't want to read it in our wedding. There are so many other beautiful passages that are overlooked. I need to follow-up with the church wedding coordinator and the pastor here that's doing our premarital counseling (we sent out our assessments almost 3 weeks ago and haven't received them back!) . I also blocked some rooms at a hotel but haven't heard back from the other hotel where I want to block rooms. So still lots to do, but it's great. All pretty much simple stuff, which is good! I also emailed my friends Heather and Grant to tell them that I stole their wedding date... and they wrote back an INCREDIBLY gracious response and are excited that we are going to have the same anniversary! What a huge blessing.

My new lunch obsession is this Chinese Style Chicken Salad from Costco. Just add lettuce!

Following up on yesterday...

So I really was QUITE rushed yesterday at the end of my blog, I realized I didn't even tell you my favorite pictures! I am going to try to put them in order for you, although towards the end the order kind of blends together.

Definitely my favorite is 1947! I just love the look in this picture. I already have it printed out and stuck on my board at work because I could not stop looking at it yesterday.
My second favorite is 1926... yes, I'm out of focus, but I think that's part of what makes the effect so cool!
2083 is another good one... my coworker Cindy says it looks like Geoff is about to jump off and run away, but I think he just looks relaxed and happy.
1817 is fun... it was taken in the House of Blues and I LOVE the profile look and the contrast.
1949 and 1927 are similar to favorites above, so I like them too, but neither of them turned out quite as well as the one before.
Taylor and Rebecca love 1935, and I agree it's a good one!
I also like 1901 and 1885, they were right when we got to Deep Ellum and came out well.

Pics I don't really like:
2033 and 2068 - I think we look mad, we were probably going for a more serious look but it just did NOT work.
1754 was one we took in the morning when it was raining and yucky and just generally no good!
My absolute least favorite is 2089 because I HATE KISSING PICTURES.

I went to bed at 6:30 PM yesterday and did not awake until 6:00 AM today... that was good, I needed it! I could still stand some more sleep, too! After work I'm going to hit the gym and then go home and do laundry, unpack the organics bin, unpack my suitcase, clean up a bit, etc.

The next few weeks and weekends are packed! (woah, I just went and made the list, pretty much the entire SUMMER is packed)
This weekend: Thursday is dinner with Geoff's grandparents, Friday we're going to The Way with Geoff's brother Trevor's girlfriend Kristy, Saturday I am going to try to hang out with my friend Kristie, and Sunday I'm making a cake with Taylor and Rebecca.
Next weekend: I don't *think* anything is planned but I know things have been mentioned for the last weekend of June so I have to remember what they are! And it's also the last weekend Taylor is in town.
Weekend of July 7: Geoff and I are going to his Oma and Opa's in Seattle for a visit.
Weekend of July 14: My friend Katie is throwing me a bachelorette party! We're going to go dancing downtown.
Weekend of July 21: Geoff's parents are throwing us an enagement / wedding send off party at their house
Weekend of July 28: Last weekend Rebecca is in town.
Weekend of August 4: Nothing yet......
Weekend of August 11: Our wedding, and unfortunately my friend Heather and Grant's wedding too. I am so sad I won't be able to attend their wedding but I try to remember that we'll share an anniversary with them which is awesome and that it'll just be okay.
Weekend of August 18: Nothing yet......
Weekend of August 25: Hood to Coast!
Weekend of September 1: My friend Carrie's wedding

The best thing I have learned from planning a wedding (I still wish Geoff had let me get married at the justice of the peace, but he was very against it and my mom is thankful) is how much everyone wants to have an opinion! And I am thinking to comments I may have made to people about their weddings like "oh that's so soon" or "wow you are waiting a long time" (I don't think I would have made any other comments other than about when they are having their wedding, and I don't know if I have even done that, but bad bad Kelly if I did!) and from now on I will be NOTHING BUT POSITIVE about people's wedding plans. Obviously a lot of people have made comments about how quickly we are getting married or about us choosing to have it in Texas. It's so discouraging! But I feel incredibly blessed, because for every comment I get about the date or place, I get an encouraging comment about how great it is that we are trying to keep the wedding simple and instead focus on preparing for a MARRAIGE instead of a wedding. And a lot of folks who have been married for 10+ years have said "yeah, if I had to go back and do it again, I'd keep it short and sweet and simple". Those encouraging comments have really been standing out to me... I am thinking of making a little journal or list of who said them so that I can remember them for a lifetime. Maybe a page in my wedding scrapbook that I'm hoping to make!

Okay, so I guess that was a little rambling rant, but I feel better having shared!

I was going to write a little more about our meeting with Pastor Anna and the rest of the day we had on Monday including driving all over the place and then our flights and stuff... but I've already yammered at you for a long time so I think I'll just let it be.

The weekend in Dallas!

Wow it's been a CRAZY last 4 or 5 days. Let's start out back before we left Portland...

Friday
I left work around 11:30 and went to go find a black dress for the memorial activities for Aunt Julie. I found it really quickly, so went home to finish packing and get stuff ready to go. Around 2 I stopped by Geoff's parent's to see Taylor and Rebecca who just got into town. Then I went back home, got there about 3, and waited for Geoff to came home. I miscommunicated with him about him leaving work at 3 and coming home and leaving right away... he was under the impression that leaving at 3 was great and we were in no real rush. So he came home, changed clothes, did a few things, and we didn't leave the house until about 3:30 for a 5:30 flight (I was planning on leaving RIGHT at 3:15, but like I said I communicated poorly). Plus we had to check a bag and park the car. And that didn't take into account the fact that there was an accident on I-84. We got to the airport about 5:15, parked in short term parking, left the bag we were going to take, and ran through security and got to the gate about 5:32. I figured it would be too late, and it was. Luckily they were able to get us on an 8 PM flight connecting through Vegas and landing in Dallas at around 4 AM. I have SEVERELY underplayed the drama that occured during all of this, I was FREAKING OUT, crying, upsetting Geoff, etc. It was really not a pleasant afternoon. So once we were on the new flight, Geoff went back out and got his bag (which had his suit for the memorial) and then moved the car. Then we took the 8 AM flight and got in to Dallas at 4 AM.

Saturday
I will start here with Saturday, though the line between Friday and Saturday is somewhat sketchy. Since we were going to have to leave for Houston at 5 or 6 anyway, the whole family picked us up from the airport and took us straight to Houston. It's a good thing we left that early, because otherwise we would have been late to the burial. There was MASSIVE thunderstorms pounding on us and we had to drive about 45 MPH most of the way. We grabbed some food at Sonic (we were planning a nice breakfast out but that didn't happen!) and then went to the burial. It was a nice service, and it was nice to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My Uncle Arlen (the husband of my Aunt Julie) said to Geoff "I'm so sorry you had to meet us under these circumstances, but you have now seen us at our worst and soon you will see us at our best". It was a really sweet thing to say! We went back to my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff's house for some lunch and to spend time with our cousins, and then to the memorial service. The last song we sang at the memorial was Joy To the World and I saw my grandfather (who had to come in late and was sitting alone but near us) start to cry, so I walked over to him and just put my arm around him. It was a sweet moment. After the memorial, we saw many family and family friends we hadn't seen in years - for example my grandmother's best friend that she's known since junior high, my parent's first realtor, my great aunt, a second cousin, etc. Although it was a sad occasion, it was remarkable to see all of these people again. After that, we headed home to Dallas. We ate a late dinner and went to bed!

Sunday
I woke up at 6:30 because Geoff and I had engagement pictures at 7:30. It was raining and not good! We took pictures for about 45 minutes, then went over the contract at Starbucks. Our photographer is someone we found on Craigslist, and she's just awesome! Then we went home and had a great breakfast casserole my sister made, and then went to church with my family. After that my aunt and uncle came over to visit for a while, and then we rested for the afternoon. Then we went BACK out around 6:00 to take more engagement pictures... that time we didn't get home until about 9:30! But honestly, that's when we took the good pictures. Annette (the photographer) says that happens a lot, because people start to relax. There was no rain and the lighting was better so we were able to get some good shots. We came home and had a late dinner again, and I stayed up late talking to my mom... but oh well...

Monday
I woke up at 7 to get some work done... we met with Pastor Anna, who will be marrying us, at 9. She was SO GREAT!!! She spent a lot of time talking with us about who we are, how we met, etc., all of that good stuff! Pastor Jim (who is doing our pre-marital counseling here in Oregon) had asked us why we think this was right for a lifetime... and neither of us had very good answers. It was all of the "good on paper" sort of stuff - we're funny, smart, challenge each other, etc. all of that. I didn't like that, and had thought about it for a few days. I told Anna that it's all of that stuff... but you could say that about a lot of people. It's the things that you CAN'T describe, the way we relate to each other and communicate, things like that, that make me want to marry Geoff. Geoff also said that the reasons we could list weren't adequate and said that really it just comes down to "I love her". It was cool. We also talked about the wedding ceremony, and I think we are going to do communion during it! I had thought about that but never seen it done before, but Pastor Anna said that she LOVES doing it. Communion is really special to me and Geoff, in fact we picked our church because it has weekly communion, and so that was SUCH a cool idea. We'd also be able to serve our guests the communion which I love the idea of. And we'd take the Lutheran church's communion service (our pre-marital counseling is at a Lutheran church) and use it and say "this service is a gift from Pastor Jim and the St. Matthew Lutheran church". It was all just SO cool! We still have a lot of details to plan, but I'm very excited. After that we spent lots of time driving around, doing errands, etc., then had dinner with my parents and off we went. We got home around 3 AM, I'm exhausted. That's why the end of this entry is rushed, because I'm going home. I might fill in more details about meeting with Anna and other things tomorrow... for now I will leave you with some engagement pictures! Some I love, some I hate, but there will be more to come later. And the ones I hate are NOT because of our photographer, but because we just look silly!

I apparently grieve by writing.

So it must be pretty unfortunate to be my blog reader. I think I'd like an online journal that is private, that only I can see. I journal in a real paper journal, but not as much as I bet I would if I had a journal on the computer. Oh well.

So my mom called and visitation for my aunt will be tomorrow from 5 - 7. My family is not going to go to that because Geoff and I aren't getting in until 1 AM, and they want to wait for us. I told my mom they could go and we could figure it out, but she said no. Then the burial will be the next morning at 10:30 or 11 on Saturday, and then a memorial service at their church at 2. So my mom asked that Geoff and I go to that, she said that she knew my aunt would want me to be there and my mom would appreciate the support. I haven't been able to get in touch with Geoff yet, but we talked about it last night and I know that he will go with me. I feel bad for him because the first time he'll meet my dad and sister will be on the car on the way to Houston and then he will meet my extended family (on my mom's side) for the first time at my aunt's burial. But he is an amazing man and he will do just fine. God defintiely works in amazing ways and as sad as it is, it's good that Geoff and I happened to be going home this weekend and that my sister is there too so that my whole family will be able to be there. God is good. :) We will come back to Dallas Saturday night so we'll be home for engagement pictures Sunday morning and then go to church to meet our pastor. It will be a brief trip to Houston but it will work out just fine!

A funny: Yesterday I mentioned to Geoff that I couldn't go running this morning because I had given blood yesterday, and he said "is that why you give blood, so you don't have to work out?" I said "No, I give blood for the cookie!" ;-) Seriously though, when they have blood drives at work, they make the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER!!! Hehe.

The wrap up to my day

Dang, sorry for when I have bummer postings. I still enjoy that life has good days and bad, it is part of the cycle of life, and there are always happy times and sad times and that's okay! My cousin Alex was already with my Aunt Julie, and her husband was there as well. My cousin Andrew who lives in California got in around 10 PM last night. They had been giving Julie medicine to help her stay alive until Andrew got there, and they stopped or slowed it when he did. My other aunt and uncle stayed in the hospital until about 3 AM, and Julie died about 4:30 last night - her husband and both sons were there with her. My mom said to my grandfather "I know she went right to heaven to be with Mebe and Febe and Jesus" (Mebe and Febe were my great-grandparents, named by my grandfather when he married my grandmother, so he'd have something to call his in-laws... short for Mother Ebert and Father Ebert). So that is sad, but I saw Julie at Christmas and talked to her on the phone a couple of weeks ago, and my parents were just there Memorial Day weekend. Her husband needs some time and so we don't yet know what the funeral arrangements will be. Since Geoff and I will be in Dallas, we might drive down to Houston for the day to go if it's on Saturday, but it might not be until next week. We'll just have to wait and see!

I'm having lunch with Addy today and I'm VERY excited about that! Then after work I'll go to the gym for my Body Works class and then meet Geoff and head to his parents house for dinner with his cousin and grandmother. YAY! After that we still need to pack and then we'll leave right after work (hopefully leaving work early!) to head to the airport. Very exciting, it should be a great weekend, regardless of what happens.

A day

Today was a day! I gave blood at work which was great. Then we were supposed to have our first pre-marital counseling session... before that I was out getting the mail and got some news from one of our neighbors that a neighbor is in the hospital. This is especially hard because we are close to this family and we have so much going on this week and will be out of town with the weekend so we aren't able to do as much for the family as we would like to (helping with meals, babysitting, etc.). I said we would be praying for them and they said that was what they needed most. We then had pre-marital counseling which was great, we took a 200 question assessment that we will get results back for in a few weeks. Then I got some news from my Aunt Lisa that my Aunt Julie, who has breast, brain, and liver cancer probably wouldn't make it through the night. In all of the confusion my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff weren't able to find my parent's phone numbers. So they called me and asked me to call my mom right away. Geoff and I are going to Dallas for the weekend and we will still go, and if necessary/possible we will drive to Houston for the funeral on Saturday (we have no idea if it will be then, if she will end up dying tonight, etc.). Then we went by Geoff's parent's house to see his cousin and grandma who just got in to town today. We had a really nice visit with them and talked a lot about Hood to Coast and our wedding, but at the very end Geoff's grandma told us she would not be coming to the wedding. She doesn't like to travel much and it's very hard on her, and she doesn't like to be around a lot of new people, and the combination was just going to be too much. That made us both really sad, because we had really intentionally tried to schedule our wedding so that parents, siblings, and grandparents could be there. When we got into the car I couldn't help myself, I just started crying. I was crying about Grandma, but then all of the other news of the day just started weighing more heavily upon me. It was such a crazy day... there were some really great highs: giving blood, great talk with Geoff's family, pre-marital counseling... and some really hard lows. I'm sorry to be such a downer, but blogging is quite theraputic to me and I wanted to get something down. So that's my news... more to come as things unfold.

Getting the tortures over with...

WOAH, before I post anything, let me just say that I just looked at my blog from the "front end" and that picture doesn't look anything like me. That is the first time I've EVER looked at a picture of myself and thought it didn't look like me. WEIRD!!!

Anyway, it was a GREAT weekend. Geoff's brother Trevor came in to surprise his girlfriend, Kristy, for her graduation weekend. It was so great to see Trevor! We went over to Geoff's parent's house Thurdsay night for a dinner cooked by Trevor... tossed salad with homemade honey mustard dressing, and honey mustard glazed kabobs. DELISH! Then Geoff and I had to get home to finish Kristy's graduation cake! Friday was Kristy's grad party, Geoff was in charge of the ribs (he did a FABULOUS job) and I was in charge of the cake. People joke that we should start KG Catering! Kristy has 5 brothers and sisters (well, brother and sisters... 5 girls and 1 boy!) so it is always fun being around her family! They are sooo cute! Saturday I got up and talked to my sister a little, then went to the gym, then to Qdoba for some food and Jessica McClintock to look for wedding dresses. Then I stopped by Target to get a new shirt for me and one for Geoff, and then I headed home and napped a little. Saturday night Geoff and I went to Russell St. BBQ for dinner.... soooo tasty as always! Sunday morning I woke up and went to church, then the mall for a bit, then David's Bridal for a dress (I bought one, and Geoff's mom left work to come see me and give me a second opinion, I was SO greatful), then I met Katie at Starbucks, and then I met Geoff at Oceans 13 (better than Oceans 12, not quite as good as Oceans 11). It was a great weekend... I felt like I got a lot done but also felt refreshed!

This weekend and today I got a lot of "tortures" over with... one being dress shopping, and the other isn't a torture to any normal person at all. I was talking to Katie yesterday and telling her how awkward I am and how I still haven't told some of my very dearest friends that I'm engaged! I think it was because I didn't want to feel like I was "bragging" and I didn't a conversation with these people (some of whom I don't get to talk to very often) to be all about me... I wanted to know what was going on in their lives too. I don't know how to explain it! So I have told everyone but ONE person now... and I WILL tell her today. I'm so awkward!!

The Bin and the Bin and the Box

Okay, so I think the regular readers already know about the organics bin that we get every week... we switched this week to the veggie bin, so that will be exciting. We'll get tomatoes almost every week and no more fruits, which we don't eat much anyway! It comes tonight!

The only reason I told you about that bin was to differentiate between it and the Family Chat Bin. No link for this one, but I don't think I've told y'all about it before. It is just my family (mom, dad, sister, and me... Geoff and Abel are in it now too), and we email each other quite a few times every day, depending on work schedules and things like that. It's a GREAT way to keep in touch, and very very funny. LOVE the bin. So my mom loves to rent movies, especially in the summer when she's not teaching. She always complains about the price of Blockbuster and is always looking for a deal (we used to have a Dollar Video place at us in Chicago, and in Iowa they had Mr. Movies which had cheap weeknight rentals). So she found this "little box" that you could put a dollar into and you could get a movie out, at WalMart. She kept telling us about it and how she couldn't wait to try it, and it's been quite a hot topic in the bin for the past few weeks (don't know why she talked about it instead of just renting one). Christine and I were like "what the heck is this sketchy box Mom keeps talking about!" Then Mom asked for suggestions and Christine was mentioning new movies, and I was like "no, this box is only for ghetto old movies, like Pretty Woman or Top Gun". My mom was all "how do you know, you've never even seen the box!!" So anyway, Mom checked it out yesterday and said that YES, there were new movies in the box. So she tried it out, and forwarded us the copy of the emailed receipt, and said it was great. This morning when she returned it, she ran into the man who was servicing it, and he said they have them mostly at WalMarts and at Albertsons. Somewhere along the line she also mentioned that it was red. She was very happy with the whole experience.

Geoff was at the grocery store picking up some buns to make hamburgers tonight, and he called about an hour ago saying "GUESS WHAT?" I said what, and he said "I just saw the dollar box!!!" I said "No way, at Albertsons, because my mom said it was there!" And he said, YUP!, at Albertsons. And I said "was it red?" He said "it was red"! VERY EXCITING! It's right across the street, how handy!!

So then I got to thinking about the box and wanted to find out what it was... well a little googling quickly determinated that it was RedBox... which of course after I saw the website I remembered it was the same place Marisa blogged about months ago! So now we've come full circle on this crazy box... I can't wait to try it now!

Monday...

Ahhh it was a tough weekend! :) Geoff and I were just dealing with some family stuff that was really emotionally draining! We had to make some tough decisions, and though the decisions are finally done, the hard part may just be beginning!

Highlights of the weekend:
- making a Little Mermaid cake for a co-worker's daughter that was a HUGE hit. It is my favorite cake that I've ever made!
- getting 3 loads of laundry done (it was really stacking up)
- doing a MAJOR MAJOR cleaning of my room
- going to see Knocked Up (this was good because it was the only time all weekend that Geoff and I spent together just relaxing)
- an amazing evening out with Katie... dinner at Henry's downtown and then dessert at PF Changs! It was nice to be out, I haven't been downtown in a long time
- a fabulous workout Saturday afternoon

Poor Geoff had to work 25 hours between Saturday and Sunday. He finally gets a day off on Wednesday! We are looking forward to going to Dallas next weekend, here is the list my sister has prepared for what we will do while we are there (might be a little confusing especially if you don't know her or us, but funny nonetheless):

1. Geoff meets Stiney
2. Float
3. Make cool drinks like Jaimacian 10 speeds and Miami Vices
4. Go to Central Market
5. Shop at the Galeria. Help Kelly find better clothes and Stiney cool stuff.
6. Uncle Julios
7. Eat lobster
8. Make zucchini bread
9. Buy gifts for Spanish folk.
10. Meet Anna
11. Some people take engagement pics..
12. go rollerblading.
13. Celebrate Dad's day